Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League. The Oilers won the first two AFL championships, before joining the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger.

The team relocated from the Astrodome in Houston, Texas to the state of Tennessee in 1997. While waiting for a permanent stadium to be built in Nashville, the team played temporarily at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season before moving to Nashville in 1998 and playing in Vanderbilt Stadium. For two seasons, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers before changing its name to Titans in 1999. The team plays at LP Field in Nashville. The team's training facility is at Baptist Sports Park, a 31-acre (13 ha) site at the MetroCenter complex, located just north of downtown Nashville about 5 miles (8.0 km) from LP Field.

Logos and uniforms

When the team debuted as the Oilers in 1960, the club's logo was an oil rig derrick. Except for minor color changes throughout the years, this logo remained the same until the team was renamed the Titans in 1999. The logo was originally called "Ol' Riggy" but this was dropped before the start of the 1974 season.

The Oilers uniforms consisted of blue or white jerseys, red trim, and white pants. From 1966 through 1971, the pants with both the blue and white jerseys were silver, to match the color of the helmets. The team commonly wore light blue pants on the road with the white jerseys from 1972 through 1994, with the exception of the 1980 season, and selected games in the mid 80s, when the team wore an all-white road combination. For selected games in 1973 and 1974, and again from 1981 through 1984, the Oilers wore their white jerseys at home. The light blue pants were discarded by coach Jeff Fisher in 1995.

From 1960 to about 1965, and from 1972 to 1974, they wore blue helmets; from 1966 to 1971, the helmets were silver; and they were white from 1975 to 1998.

During the 1997–98 period when they were known as the "Tennessee Oilers", the team had an alternate logo that combined elements of the flag of Tennessee with the derrick logo. The team also wore their white uniforms in home games, as opposed to their time in Houston, when their blue uniforms were worn at home – in the two years as the Tennessee Oilers, the team only wore their colored jerseys twice, for road games against the Miami Dolphins and a Thanksgiving Day game against the Dallas Cowboys.

When the team was renamed the Titans, the club introduced a new logo: A circle with three stars, similar to that found on the flag of Tennessee containing a large "T" with a trail of flames similar to a comet. The uniforms consist of white helmets, red trim, and either navy or white jerseys. White pants are normally worn with the navy jerseys, and navy pants are worn with the white jerseys. On both the navy and white jerseys, the outside shoulders and sleeves are light "Titans Blue". In a game vs. the Washington Redskins in 2006, the Titans wore their navy jerseys with navy pants for the first time.

Since 2000, the Titans have generally worn their dark uniforms at home throughout the preseason and regular season. The Titans have worn white at home in daytime contests for a few occasions in September home games to gain an advantage with the heat. The Titans wore white at home twice in 2000, 2002, and 2010. The Titans wore white once at home in 2001 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 2004 and 2007 against the Indianapolis Colts, and once in 2009 against the Houston Texans.

The Titans introduced an alternate jersey in 2003 that is light "Titans Blue" with navy outside shoulders and sleeves. That jersey is usually worn with the road blue pants. When it was the alternate jersey from 2003 to 2007, the Titans wore the jersey twice in each regular season game (and also once in each preseason game). They would always wear the "Titans Blue" jersey in their divisional game against the Houston Texans and for other selected home games which came mostly against a team from the old AFL (American Football League). Their selection in those games were representative of the organization's ties to Houston and the old AFL. In November 2006, the Titans introduced light "Titans Blue" pants in a game at Philadelphia. The pants were reminiscent of the ones donned by the Oilers. In December 2006, they combined the "Titans Blue" pants with the "Titans Blue" jersey to create an all "Titans Blue" uniform – Vince Young appeared in this uniform in the cover art for the Madden NFL 08 video game.

During the 2006 season, the Titans wore seven different uniform combinations, pairing the white jersey with all three sets of pants (white, Titans blue, navy blue), the navy jersey with the white and navy pants, and the Titans blue jersey with navy and Titans blue pants. In 2007 against the Atlanta Falcons, the Titans paired the navy blue jersey with the Titans blue pants for the first time, a game which they won. They also did the navy blue jerseys with the light blue pants against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they lost that game. The team has yet to pair the Titans blue jersey with white pants.

In 2008, it was announced that the "Titans Blue" jerseys would become the regular home uniforms, with the navy being relegated to alternate status.^[1]

In 2009, The NFL and Hall of Fame committee announced that the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills would kick-off the 2009 National Football League preseason in the Hall of Fame Game. The game, played on Sunday, August 9, 2009 at Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Field at Fawcett Stadium, was nationally televised on NBC. The Titans defeated the Bills by a score of 21–18.^[2] This was the first time, since Tennessee changed its name, the Titans wore their Oilers uniform, in honor of the AFL's 50th anniversary. Also in 2009, the team honored former Quarterback Steve McNair, by placing a small navy blue disc on the back of their helmets, inside of the navy blue disk, a white number 9 (9 was the number McNair wore during his time with the Oilers/Titans).

Season-by-season records

Players of note

Current roster

Pro Football Hall of Famers

• Elvin Bethea
• George Blanda
• Earl Campbell
• Ken Houston
• Bruce Matthews
• Warren Moon
• Mike Munchak

===Retired numbers===^[3]

• 1 Warren Moon
• 34 Earl Campbell
• 43 Jim Norton
• 63 Mike Munchak
• 65 Elvin Bethea
• 74 Bruce Matthews

Titans/Oilers Hall of Fame

Bud Adams established the Titans/Oilers Hall of Fame after the 40th season of the franchise to honor past players and management.^[4]

Coaches of note

Head coaches

• Lou Rymkus (1960–1961)
• Wally Lemm (1961)
• Pop Ivy (1962–1963)
• Sammy Baugh (1964)
• Hugh Taylor (1965)
• Wally Lemm (1966–1970)
• Ed Hughes (1971)
• Bill Peterson (1972–1973)
• Sid Gillman (1973–1974)
• Bum Phillips (1975–1980)
• Ed Biles (1981–1983)
• Chuck Studley (interim) (1983)
• Hugh Campbell (1984–1985)
• Jerry Glanville (1985–1989)
• Jack Pardee (1990–1994)
• Jeff Fisher (1994–2010)
• Mike Munchak (2011–)

Current staff

Radio and television

The Titans' flagship radio station for several years was WKDF 103.3-FM. However WGFX 104.5-FM, the original Tennessee Oilers/Titans Radio flagship station, again serves as the Titans Radio flagship station since the 2010 season. Mike Keith is the team's play-by-play announcer, and former Titans tight end Frank Wycheck provides color commentary during games. Previous to Wycheck, Pat Ryan provided the color commentary. Larry Stone is also a part of the team, providing injury and scoring updates. The Titans Radio Network is broadcast on some 70 other stations.^[5]

The team has long resisted placing any of its games on Sirius XM Radio.^[6] According to the Titans Radio Network, this is because the Titans' contract with Citadel Broadcasting (parent of both WKDF and WGFX) predates the arrival of satellite radio, thus there is no provision for the NFL to reserve satellite-radio rights.^[7]

Most preseason games are televised on WKRN, the ABC affiliate in Nashville. WKRN also aired a weekly show on Tuesday nights, but for the 2010 season it was recorded on Tuesday nights and then broadcast on Wednesday nights. The show, called 'Titans on 2', was hosted by former Head Coach Jeff Fisher and WKRN anchor John Dwyer. Plans for the shows future with new Head Coach Mike Munchak have not been announced.

For regular season games, WTVF, the CBS affiliate for Nashville is the main station airing them.

Radio Affiliates

Tennessee

Titans Radio Affiliates in Tennessee

Alabama

Titans Radio Affiliates in Alabama

Arkansas

Titans Radio Affiliates in Arkansas

Illinois

Titans Radio Affiliates in Illinois

Kentucky

Titans Radio Affiliates in Kentucky

Mississippi

Titans Radio Affiliates in Mississippi

See also

• List of American Football League players
• NFL Cheerleading

References

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/sports/la-sp-nfl-report-20110106

External links

• Official website